By Adedapo Adesanya
More than 200 Google and its parent company, Alphabet, workers have announced the establishment of a union, historically creating the first major work union in the tech industry.
The elected leaders of the union wrote in a New York Times opinion piece on Monday, January 4 that the Alphabet Workers Union was established with help of Communication Workers of America Union’s Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA).
Open to both employees and contractors, the union aims to ensure that employees work at a fair wage, without fear of abuse, retaliation or discrimination.
Members who sign up to be part of the union will pay 1 per cent of total compensation, which includes salary and equity.
The development is coming on the heel of criticisms faced by the company over its policies which border on infringement of rights and discrimination.
“We’re building on years of organising efforts at Google to create a formal structure for workers,” the union leaders wrote, adding that so far, 226 employees had signed union cards with the Communications Workers of America.
On its part, Google has announced that it was confident that its workers acted legally.
“Our employees have protected labour rights that we support. But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees,” Ms Kara Silverstein, director of people operations at Google, said on Monday.
Analysts believe that the move could push tech worker to start organising beyond petitions and protests even embarking on strikes. There are also expectations that workers in other tech giants will follow this line of action to establish their respective unions.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Aduragbemi Omiyale